hahahaha!

I only find this so amusing because i am a VZW customer.

Yep more about it here EXCLUSIVE: AT&T neuters the BlackBerry 8820 in favor of the iPhone | BlackBerry Cool

Does not bother me as I could care less about the GPS and not too much about the WiFi abilities.

Same here. I have no need for the wifi, nor do am I all that upset abotu the GPS.

So the bottom line is...if you don't care about wi-fi, the 8800 is a better unit than the 8820?

Seems like Sprint is the only one left not neutering...now if we could only get the new phones sooner...

I feel the same way

also cant you just see all the ATT disables the GPS im sueing threads now.

there are already three threads on this very subject lol

The 8800 is the better unit I'd say. I have more use for GPS than i do for wifi.

Tmo and Sprint are apparently the only companies left that arent 'crippling' features that a phone has. Oh well! Maybe someone will file a class action? hahaha

I talked vzw into letting me upgrade early so I am gonna get the 8830 soon

Hmmm.. Do you really think AT&T will carry both the 8800 and 8820. I'd be willing to bet that they stop selling the 8800 around the same time the 8820 hits the shelves.

I suggest no one upgrade the firmware on their 8800 after this news is out. They may flood the lockout lower down the chain of models.

Also, I don't see any "logical" reason for doing this by ATT. There's really no major competition against the iPhone's capabilities vs BB. They are completely different solutions in my viewpoint.

Here's what's really going to bake your noodle. What if, just what if, this is some kind of "insider setup" triggered by some relationship between ATT and Verizon? Yeah, I know what you're thinking... conspiracy theory anyone? All I'm saying, if this sort of things floods to the other carriers, in perticular Sprint then you know VZW is behind this tactic wayyyyyyyyyyy inside the organization. VZW needs something to back their "reasons" for GPS disable on the 8830 short of being accused of extortion... what better way to show "you're not alone" then to get the other big dogs to play the same game. The corporations win and the consumer looses in this scenario and VZW gets away scott free... yet again. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with the other carriers.

I can't wait until WIFI gets locked out. :LOL: Pretty soon we'll have BBs that can only take phone calls and nothing else.

RIM really should have stuck to their guns on this. Freaking sellouts.... again.

Wirelessly posted (8830: BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Rim has to please their customer. Being att, vz, sprint etc. What is intresting if it really is over an iphone LOL @ att. But heck att bend over backword and gave a phone mfg more power then the provider so.

"The carrier allegedly threatened to drop BlackBerries entirely from its network when RIM protested the limitation, according to the source."

No way. Does any one seriously believe ATT would put itself in a position to be the only provider in North America not to sell Blackberries. They would lose a helluva lot more customers than just those who want full GPS capability. Why risk losing that customer base when when the initial enthusiasm for the iPhone will soon wear off (if it hasn't already) and it will be nothing more than than just another smartphone.

I'm so glad to be with t-mobile. I made the right decision on that one!! I love the GPS on my phone and my users are loving it too. They all want new 8800's.

I can see the merits of the conspiracy theory between Verizon and ATT. The cell companies are starting to band together to screw the consumer unfortunately.

I wish Tmobile would show up here in western NC...I had them when I was based out of Atlanta and covering the US. Best service I ever had, and the least expensive.

-simpson

Just another reason why being a customers on the largest networks doesn't always pay. The bigger they are, the more likely they are to screw the customer, because they can. Small carriers like Sprint and T Mobile give you better pricing because they don't take their customers for granted.

but thats not a valid argument sprint is more expensive for me.

i'd be willing to work on unlocking the GPS on the 88xx could someone send me a download link for the VZW 8830 OS, I am not a verizon customer so I can't download it from either bb or VZW

Wow, I'm glad T-Mobile doesnt let one single manufacture(Apple) inhibit releasing important features on other manufactures products. They might was well just stop selling other PDA products and just sell iphonies. They opened up a can of worms when they let apple have so much control over the way the do buisness. Anyhow ill be happy with my Voip and WIFI Curve @ T-Mobile next month. Life just couldnt be sweeter. LOL

You're wasting your time. It's not even linked to the OS. It's linked to the firmware file which is the same throughout all the carriers (at least the instruction set to disable the GPS on VZW). If you really want to fix this issue find a way to change the Carrier ID the phone shows when you do #HELP* Send. If you can change this ID you can defeat the GPS lockout. Find my other posts on this, I'm getting tired of repeating myself.

This just shows how big of a pu**y RIM is at this point in time. They are so easily scared by these BS tactics. RIM's stock is so overpriced the owners are scared to loose their market share. It's going to come back and bite them in the ass when consumers realize they are getting corrupted by the carriers they sell to. If you ask me, RIM needs to start giving the option to buy direct from them. Circumvent the carriers and show them who's boss. After all, without the companies that make these phones the carriers are useless. They sell a service, they don't make the devices that work on the service. The real power is in the hands of those that provide the hardware, only problem is they have been so blinded by cowering down and just taking their money. The consumers really need to bite down and start forcing these companies to change their ways. We need some wide range Consumerism here people. Take the control back!

all i see is another rumor. and for all i know this is done to get publicity for the release of the 8820.

Wirelessly posted (8830: BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

But let's say I go spend 700 on an unbranded bb straight from rim. Its still the service provider who says I can or cannot use it on their network